Behavioural Psychotherapy

Table of Contents - 1989 - Volume 17, Issue 04  

Research Article

Normalization and Applied Behaviour Analysis: Rapprochement or Intellectual Imperialism?

Eric Emersona1 and Peter McGilla2

a1 Hester Adrian Research Centre, University of Manchester

a2 Centre for the Applied Psychology of Social Care, University of Kent at Canterbury

Our recent attempt (Emerson and McGill, 1989) to suggest a rapprochement between normalization and applied behaviour analysis has proven to be a contentious venture. Baldwin (1989) has made a case for dismissing our argument on the grounds that it is an attempt by “normalization advocates” to take over applied behaviour analysis. He suggests that, as we have made no case for this other than “simplistic de facto moralizing” (p. 307), our paper will be transparent to behavioural practitioners whose moral integrity, it is implied, we have assaulted. In contrast, Baldwin suggests that there is a case for applied behaviour analysis subsuming normalization, although this is considered problematic because of the weakness of the latter position and the “excessive zealotry, proselytizing and evangelizing” (p. 306) of its proponents (ourselves presumably included).

Footnotes

Reprint requests to Eric Emerson, Hester Adrian Research Centre, The University, Manchester M13 9PL, U.K.

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